²⁹ In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the River Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him, but when Pharaoh Neco met him at Megiddo, he killed him.^(A)

² Concerning Egypt, about the army of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, which was by the River Euphrates at Carchemish and which King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah:^(A)

Defeat by Pharaoh Neco and Death of Josiah

²⁰ After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, King Neco of Egypt went up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out against him.^{(A) 21} But Neco^[a] sent envoys to him, saying, “What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I am not coming against you today but against the house with which I am at war, and God has commanded me to hurry. Cease opposing God, who is with me, so that he will not destroy you.” ²² But Josiah would not turn away from him but disguised himself in order to fight with him. He did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God but joined battle in the plain of Megiddo.^{(B) 23} The archers shot King Josiah, and the king said to his servants, “Take me away, for I am badly wounded.” ²⁴ So his servants took him out of the chariot and carried him in his second chariot^[b] and brought him to Jerusalem. There he died and was buried in the tombs of his ancestors. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.^(C)

¹¹ On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.^(A)

¹⁶ And the demonic spirits^[a] assembled the kings^[b] at the place that in Hebrew is called Harmagedon.

³³ O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!^(A)

Israel’s Futile Idolatry

Take Life as It Comes

9 All this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hate one does not know. Everything that confronts them ² is vanity,^[a] since the same fate comes to all, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil,^[b] to the clean and the unclean, to those who sacrifice and those who do not sacrifice. As are the good, so are the sinners; those who swear are like those who shun an oath.^(A)